Announcing the new PANS PANDAS UK CEO
The Trustees of the PANS PANDAS UK charity are delighted to announce the appointment of Vicky Burford as the Chief Executive Officer of the charity.
Vicky was one of the founders of the charity in 2018 and has performed many roles for the charity since then, including most recently Chair of the Trustees. She has been instrumental in the rapid growth of the charity and for the increasing recognition and acceptance of PANS and PANDAS by numerous health and education bodies. Vicky has also worked with health professionals and politicians across England, Wales and Scotland to raise the profile of those suffering from these illnesses.
The Trustees recognise that the charity is at a pivotal point in its development and believe that appointing a new Chief Executive Officer to lead the charity will ensure that the charity’s strategy can be successfully delivered. After going through a rigorous interview process, Vicky was unanimously chosen as the ideal candidate by the Trustees and offered the role.
Vicky will be taking up her new appointment with effect from 1 June 2025. Vicky will step down from her role as Chair of the Trustees and from the Board of Trustees on taking up her new appointment.
The Trustees have appointed an existing Trustee, Andy Koss, to become Chair once Vicky steps down. Andy has sat on many Boards in his time working in the corporate sector and has been a Trustee for the charity since May 2024.
The Trustees are excited about the future of the charity under Vicky Burford’s leadership and with Andy Koss’s expertise as Chair. Together with the ongoing support of the wider community and the dedication of the charity’s employees and volunteers, the Trustees are confident that the charity’s strategic objectives can be delivered.
Q&A
Why are you making this appointment?
The charity has grown rapidly over the last few years, driven partly by its success in achieving increasing recognition and acceptance of PANS and PANDAS by numerous health and education bodies.
This has meant that the employees and volunteers working for the charity have become increasingly stretched. Vicky Burford, as the Chair, has effectively been performing the role of CEO on an unpaid basis alongside her full-time senior management role at another charity, the Aplastic Anaemia Trust.
This has become unsustainable for both Vicky and PANS PANDAS UK employees and the Trustees therefore took the decision to appoint a CEO to lead the charity on a full-time basis and provide greater co-ordination and support for the employees and volunteers of the charity.
Why do you need a Chief Executive Officer for a relatively small charity?
The charity has had great success in raising the profile of PANS and PANDAS amongst health and education bodies and with politicians, which has triggered a huge amount of work to determine national level guidelines and treatments for these illnesses. This work in turn needs to be properly funded, which means that the charity needs to increase and diversify its revenue streams to ensure that this work can continue.
The Trustees determined that the charity needed someone to lead this work, co-ordinate the work being done by employees and volunteers, take on the funding challenges identified and be the public face of the charity.
Whilst the Trustees recognise that the “CEO” job title might sound a big role for a relatively small charity, it was clear to them that CEO conveyed the right level of importance for the role and was a title widely understood by those working with charities, including donors, politicians and professional bodies.
The Trustees have also reached agreement with Vicky Burford that, initially at least, Vicky would be paid below what would typically be a market level salary for an established and experienced charity CEO, which should help to manage the finances of the charity in the near-term.
How will the charity afford the role?
The Trustees recognised the impact that appointing a full-time CEO would have on the finances of the charity. However, they believed that this needed to be done if the charity were to deliver on its stated strategy.
In order to mitigate the impact, the following actions have been taken:
- The charity will initially pay Vicky Burford a salary below what would typically be market level for an established and experienced charity CEO.
- The charity has secured a donation of £40,000 specifically to fund a new CEO role for the first 12 months.
- In her interview, Vicky set out a strategic funding plan to increase and diversify the revenue of the charity, which, if successfully delivered, would provide a sustainable basis on which to fund a CEO role.
The Trustees will be monitoring this position closely to ensure that the charity remains financially sound.
What process did you undertake to appoint Vicky Burford?
The Trustees, excluding Vicky Burford as Chair, have met on numerous occasions to discuss the appointment of the CEO. It was recognised that the current situation of Vicky Burford effectively performing the role on an unpaid basis alongside her full-time role was unsustainable and that this had to be resolved quickly.
When Vicky was asked by the Trustees if she would be interested in the role, and subsequently confirmed that she was, the Trustees decided to interview her ahead of widening the recruitment process to external candidates as they felt that (1) the process could be expedited if Vicky were successful (2) it might save money to appoint Vicky, as she had indicated that she would not initially require a market level charity CEO salary and (3) her knowledge and experience of PANS and PANDAS as well as her already strong list of external connections would be far superior to any external candidate and would enable the challenge of fund raising to be addressed more quickly.
Who will be the new Chair?
The Trustees, including Vicky, have decided to appoint Andy Koss as the new Chair. Andy has been a Trustee of PPUK since May 2024 and brings a wealth of experience from the corporate sector, having been a Chief Executive himself for the last 10 years and having sat on many Boards.
He and Vicky have established a strong working relationship over the last year and believe their skills and experience should be complementary as the charity embarks on the next phase of its development.
